Wednesday, 8 January 2020
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| today's route |
The campground is on Martin's Bluff Road, and the farm next door with the cows is, according to a sign, owned by some folks named Martin. I'd guess an ancestor used to be the only person living out here, which is where the road's name comes from.
Next door to their farm is a Buddhist temple. Very small, nothing grand at all, but a surprise to see it out here in this rural area.
SANDHILL CRANE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE VISITOR CENTER, Gautier
This refuge was the first in the US to be established under the Environmental Protection Act of 1973. Its purpose is to protect the last surviving flock of the Mississippi Sandhill Crane subspecies. This group doesn't migrate and is entirely dependent on the specific habitat that once covered vast acres of the Gulf coast: wet pine savanna.
At the time the refuge was created, there were only 30 birds left in this subspecies, and only 3% of the original habitat remained. In the 45 years since, the flock has been increased to about 100 birds, and the habitat, though still covering only a small area, is at least healthy and still in existence.
The nearby Audubon Species Restoration Center raises 15-20 chicks from eggs to adolescence each year. They're careful to never let the birds see human faces or bodies - they wear masks and suits that hide their scent and blur their outlines when they feed them, then release them into the refuge.
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| Mississippi Sandhill Cranes - 4½' tall, 6' wing span, white cheeks, red cap |
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| this is their habitat |
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| this is what it looks like at the refuge |
Oddly, one of the reasons for the decline of the savanna, and the resulting decline of this crane, is air conditioning. Some of us remember a time when most houses didn't have central air conditioning, which made living in this climate very uncomfortable. Its widespread use in the '50s and '60s allowed the population in these coastal areas to balloon. One result of more humans was that forests were cut down and marshlands drained to build houses on that land.
Another result was a concerted effort to prevent and suppress fires. This habitat needs fires to maintain itself - fire clears away encroaching invasive species of brush and deposits nutrients in the clay soil. This refuge tries to mimic natural fires with periodic controlled burns to help maintain the savanna habitat.
I'm sorry that this photo is so fuzzy - I cleaned it up as best I could, and I'm including it here because it's got a lot of information about what life forms this savanna supports.
Oddly, carnivorous plants like this habitat, and 10 species of them live here.
These are three of them:
As it happens, the MS Sandhill Cranes are an umbrella species for this habitat - if their population is unhealthy, so is that of a stunning number of other species of plants and animals
Nearly 200 species of birds have been seen here, most stopping during spring and fall migrations. But some rare or endangered birds live here full-time.
More information about the cranes:
MS Sandhill Cranes can live up to 25 years, and they mate for life. Unfortunately, they have a very low reproductive rate, laying only 1 or 2 eggs a year and depending on a very specific limited habitat.
I'm guessing the Visitor Center gets a lot of local folks in from time to time, concerned about their practice of prescribed burns, because their exhibits mention it frequently and they have a large display about why and how the burns are conducted. Here are 2 parts:
The Visitor Center is lucky to have enthusiastic staff and volunteers, who were quick to tell me that I'd missed seeing 4 cranes that were feeding near the Center just this morning. They have regular early morning tours for folks who want to have a guide in looking for cranes that have regular areas they visit. They gave me maps to help me find these areas on my own and encouraged me to walk around the area near the Center. Nice, dedicated folks.
MARITIME AND SEAFOOD INDUSTRY MUSEUM, Biloxi
I had high hopes for this museum, assuming it would tell me all about commercial fisheries in the MS Gulf coast. When I was working with Alaska commercial fisheries, I heard now and then about the problems they were having down here, and these fisheries sounded very different from what I was used to.
I'm very sorry to say the information they had about the commercial fisheries was poorly laid out and poorly explained, and honestly, it seemed really limited. They had a few pieces of fishing equipment but didn't explain very clearly how they were used. Their photos and diagrams were mostly 5" x 7" - very hard to see when posted on the wall and not labeled and some too high up for a short person to read.
I'm willing to grant some leeway here, because this museum was completely destroyed by Katrina, but that was 14 years ago, they've built a fancy new building, and they're charging $10 admission ($8 for seniors), so I would have expected some decent exhibits inside.
Instead, I found a jumbled hodgepodge of stuff. They have a gallery about the Gulf ecosystem that spent almost a fifth of the space explaining TEDs - Turtle Excluder Device that helps sea turtles escape from trawl fishing nets. They bunch that together with some information about a couple of turtle species and fisheries that don't use trawls. And in the same exhibit is information about the barrier islands (like I learned at the Gulf Islands National Seashore Visitor Center).
In my opinion, they tried to cram too many needs into too small a space - so they have meeting rooms and a library and a boat building room and an "artifact" room and a gift shop, as well as miscellaneous models of boats that have either too much or not enough explanation. They have a room devoted to the various hurricanes along this coast, an exhibit of nature photos by a local (dead) photographer, a video room, some information about commercial and recreational fisheries (very different fisheries but presented together). They have an antique shrimp peeling machine next to 2 wooden boats, none of which is explained clearly.
But they've devoted most of their space to an 1800s sloop named the Nydia (NIH-dee-ah).
On the wall opposite the windows is a video with benches in front of it that explains ALL about the boat, how it was built and how wonderful it was to sail and who owned it and where it was kept and so forth. (For the odd story about how it ended up here, check this link. https://www.nola.com/news-article) This boat is on the 2nd floor and takes up about a quarter of the floor. As you can see, it extends to the 3rd floor and accounts for about a fifth of that floor. (The 1st floor, being at flood level, has just the meeting rooms, restrooms and gift shop.) Granted it's a wonderful historic boat that used to sail in this area, but the museum has made the boat its centerpiece and that's not at all what I thought I'd be seeing here. This is called the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, for heaven's sake.
As you can tell from my griping, I was really disappointed. This museum was one of the main reasons I stayed over an extra day, and I didn't at all get the information I'd hoped for. My guess is that the museum was so thrilled to be getting the Nydia that they shoved everything else into too small a space to make room for it. Oh well. It happens.
I'm sorry that this photo is so fuzzy - I cleaned it up as best I could, and I'm including it here because it's got a lot of information about what life forms this savanna supports.
Oddly, carnivorous plants like this habitat, and 10 species of them live here.
As it happens, the MS Sandhill Cranes are an umbrella species for this habitat - if their population is unhealthy, so is that of a stunning number of other species of plants and animals
Nearly 200 species of birds have been seen here, most stopping during spring and fall migrations. But some rare or endangered birds live here full-time.
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| large numbers of these birds winter here |
More information about the cranes:
MS Sandhill Cranes can live up to 25 years, and they mate for life. Unfortunately, they have a very low reproductive rate, laying only 1 or 2 eggs a year and depending on a very specific limited habitat.
 |
| nesting habits |
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| diorama |
MARITIME AND SEAFOOD INDUSTRY MUSEUM, Biloxi
I had high hopes for this museum, assuming it would tell me all about commercial fisheries in the MS Gulf coast. When I was working with Alaska commercial fisheries, I heard now and then about the problems they were having down here, and these fisheries sounded very different from what I was used to.
I'm very sorry to say the information they had about the commercial fisheries was poorly laid out and poorly explained, and honestly, it seemed really limited. They had a few pieces of fishing equipment but didn't explain very clearly how they were used. Their photos and diagrams were mostly 5" x 7" - very hard to see when posted on the wall and not labeled and some too high up for a short person to read.
I'm willing to grant some leeway here, because this museum was completely destroyed by Katrina, but that was 14 years ago, they've built a fancy new building, and they're charging $10 admission ($8 for seniors), so I would have expected some decent exhibits inside.
Instead, I found a jumbled hodgepodge of stuff. They have a gallery about the Gulf ecosystem that spent almost a fifth of the space explaining TEDs - Turtle Excluder Device that helps sea turtles escape from trawl fishing nets. They bunch that together with some information about a couple of turtle species and fisheries that don't use trawls. And in the same exhibit is information about the barrier islands (like I learned at the Gulf Islands National Seashore Visitor Center).
 |
| this is what almost all their exhibits looked like - tiny photos and tiny bits of info jumbled together |
But they've devoted most of their space to an 1800s sloop named the Nydia (NIH-dee-ah).
On the wall opposite the windows is a video with benches in front of it that explains ALL about the boat, how it was built and how wonderful it was to sail and who owned it and where it was kept and so forth. (For the odd story about how it ended up here, check this link. https://www.nola.com/news-article) This boat is on the 2nd floor and takes up about a quarter of the floor. As you can see, it extends to the 3rd floor and accounts for about a fifth of that floor. (The 1st floor, being at flood level, has just the meeting rooms, restrooms and gift shop.) Granted it's a wonderful historic boat that used to sail in this area, but the museum has made the boat its centerpiece and that's not at all what I thought I'd be seeing here. This is called the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, for heaven's sake.
As you can tell from my griping, I was really disappointed. This museum was one of the main reasons I stayed over an extra day, and I didn't at all get the information I'd hoped for. My guess is that the museum was so thrilled to be getting the Nydia that they shoved everything else into too small a space to make room for it. Oh well. It happens.
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